Rod Stewart ‘regrets’ giving daughter up for adoption

Rod Stewart still harbors regret over his decision to give his firstborn child up for adoption, but he’s convinced he would have failed to provide her with a “halfway decent” life.

The singer was just 17 when his girlfriend Susannah Boffey gave birth to their daughter Sarah, and the couple decided to give the baby away.

Stewart has since had six more children with various partners, but he still feels anguish about his lost daughter.

When asked if he regrets the decision, he tells broadcaster Piers Morgan, “There’s no way we could have given her a halfway decent start in life. Yeah, I certainly do (regret it). I missed it but we are seeing each other now and we’re trying to make amends for what went on. She had parents for 70 percent of her life. She’s only just lost her adoptive parents so there was no point in me shouting it from the rooftops, ‘I’m her father!’ We all kept it quiet.”

The “Maggie May” hitmaker has reconciled with 46-year-old Sarah and they are now trying to forge a relationship, but he admits it hasn’t been easy.

Stewart adds, “It’s somewhat rocky, you know. I think I’ve got to sit down and I think you’ve just got to just open up. If we’re going to get on, and you’re going to get on with my kids, you’ve got to open up, be more friendly, be more cordial. So we’re really working hard at it.

“In fact, I gave her my email address the other day so that’s a big, big plus. I love emailing my kids. It does bond the family together. You can say things that otherwise you might have said on the phone in haste and regretted. I can do my emails and think, ‘Does that look right? Are they going to read that the wrong way?’ and adjust.”

At 65, Stewart is preparing to become a father again – the rocker’s wife Penny Lancaster is pregnant with his eighth child.